The bumblebee catfish, has to be one of my all time favorites and is, for a catfish at least very nicely colored. They are very interesting to watch, and although somewhat reclusive, when they do come out of their hiding spot to scavenge for food, at least during the daytime, its a quick dash, grab what they want and head back for the hideout.

The bumblebee catfish seems to be mainly a nocturnal feeder, and will usually only come out at night, but if you drop in some especially tasty food during the daytime, it will come out and feed, very quickly grabbing some choice morsels, then right back to its hideout.

There are 2 types of bumblebee catfish, the South American and the Asian. The South American can be identified by the spot at the base of the caudal fish. This spot is almost like a square in the South American and a triangle with the tip towards the head for the Asian.

The South American bumblebee catfish (Microglanis iheringi), is very easy to care for because the water it requires is close to what comes out of your tap, soft, with a pH of 6.5-7.5 and the temperature at 70-77 F. It grow to a max of about 2" but I have one now that has reached about 3" . They can live for about 3-5 years in ideal conditions.

The ideal tank size for 1 catfish is 20 gallons, and with each additional catfish, it should be at least 10 gallons with lots of hiding spots.

There have been no accounts of this fish spawning in captivity yet, at least that i have found.